In Quetta, western Pakistan, it matters a great deal what your beliefs are. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say it is a matter of life and death. For to be a Shia Muslim in this arid region, you are living in a perpetual state of peril.

A meeting in the House of Lords today will consider the latest in a series of massacres of the Hazara people in the Pakistan province of Balochistan, and its connection with the wider sectarian attacks on Shi'as throughout Pakistan.

Pakistan! The land of bomb blasts, terrorism, corruption, and political uncertainty is perhaps going through most critical capricious social evolution. After Musharraf's eleven years of dictatorship, Year 2008's elections too could not bring any economic or law and order stability.